Although the blockade is often dismissed as the “native unrest” of peoples who cannot let go of history, it is quite the opposite. This talk will argue that the blockade is one of the clearest articulations of the contemporary problem of settler colonialism.

HONOUR YOUR WORD (2013) is a portrait of life behind the barricades for the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a First Nation whose dignity and courage contrast sharply with the political injustice they face. After the film there will be a discussion facilitated by Dr. Shiri Pasternak who has worked in solidarity with the people of Barriere Lake since 2008. The event will provide an opportunity to reflect on the colonial present in Canada as well as present day anti-colonial struggle.

Lesbians as Village ‘Queers’: The Transformation of Montréal’s Lesbian Nightlife in the 1990s

April 5, 2013
12:30 – 1:30 PM Room H–1269
Light lunch is provided

This presentation examines the relationship between lesbian identities and the production of commodified ‘queer space’ in Montréal’s gay village in the 1990s. In contrast with the literature that stresses their exclusions in gay commercial space, this paper argues that Montréal’s gay village was an important site for the reworking lesbian identities in the ‘queer’ 1990s. The paper examines this reworking through three primary forms of analysis. The mapping of lesbian commercial spaces is used to demonstrate the abrupt integration of lesbians as consumers of village spaces in the early 1990s. Lesbian bar advertisements are used to read the shifts in the commodification and representation of lesbian nightlife that accompanied this spatial shift. Finally, in-depth interviews conducted in the late-1990s are used to examine the ambivalent response of queer-identified lesbians to the rise of village nightlife in this period.

“The Nomad and the Whale”
Max Ritts, PhD Candidate
Department of Geography
University of British Columbia

Abstract:
Working to listen and listening to work — such is the daily routine of the Cetacea Lab intern. Cetacea Lab is an experimental whale research station on the North Coast of BC. Since 2004, when Enbridge first proposed sending oil tankers past its waters and out to Asian markets, the Lab has found itself at the centre of a growing environmental controversy. Whale scientists listen to generate abundance studies and spatialize cetacean behavior patterns, but increasingly, to generate knowledge-claims that can free the North Coast from the grip of industrial capital too. How did this happen? And what makes the intern so special? My talk will sound out concretions in a fascinating interspecies history, one shaped by naval bioacoustics, environmentalism and the casualization of labor.

Dr. PASCALE BIRON obtained her M.Sc. from the Université de Montréal in 1991, followed by her PhD in 1995 for her doctoral research in fluvial geomorphology. In 1998, she began her work at Concordia. Her research interests are stream restoration for fish habitat, river management and the sustainable management of agricultural streams, the impact of climate change on rivers, GIS and three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics. She has publications in peer-reviewed journals in the fields of geomorphology, engineering and ecology and she frequently collaborates with engineers, biologists as well as hydrogeologists to improve our understanding of river dynamics and to develop more sustainable approaches in river management. She is currently working on research projects related to fish habitat in perturbed environments (funded by NSERC), freedom space for rivers (funded by Ouranos, a climate change research centre) as well as impacts of bank stabilization on fish habitat, funded by the Ministry of Transportation of Quebec.

Dr MONICA MULRENNAN was born and raised in Ireland. She completed her PhD in 1990 at University College Dublin in coastal geomorphology. She then moved to Australia where she spent three years as a post-doctoral student working on the evolution of tropical estuarine environments near Darwin. During this period she was introduced to indigenous peoples’ interests in coastal environments through her collaboration with indigenous Torres Strait Islanders with whom she developed the marine conservation strategy for Torres Strait (MaSTS). She moved to Canada in 1993 where she held a postdoctoral position at McGill University before joining Concordia a year later. Her research interests are indigenous knowledge, customary marine tenure and management, and indigenous peoples’ adaptations to environmental change. She has sustained her collaboration with Torres Strait Islanders over the past two decades while also working closely with the James Bay Crees of northern Quebec since the mid 1990s. She has published in peer-reviewed journals in human geography, anthropology, human-environment relations, and environmental policy and management. Her current research is focused on the contribution of protected areas to the protection of indigenous environments and cultural heritage.

CATHERINE MOORE blends the scientific and spiritual, whether through her initial research interests in environmental biogeography, her current exploration of the interface of worldview and sustainability, or her lifelong love for our planet. She has been an advisor to Sustainable Concordia, environmental consultant for government and non-governmental organizations, and facilitator of workshops on sustainability within the university and beyond. With many years at Concordia, her primary professional focus and passion remains teaching

Join us for light lunch with Nasrin Himada (Concordia Geography, Planning & Environment: “Militarism and the City”) presenting & Alessandra Renzi (School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee) as we discuss the criminalization of protest, with a focus on strategies used in the Toronto G8/G20 Summit.

NASRIN HIMADA is a writer, independent film curator and teacher residing in Montreal. Her writing appears in Montreal Serai, West Coast Line, Inflexions: A Journal for Research-Creation, and FUSE Magazine. Her curatorial work has been programmed in such festivals as Image+Nation: Montreal’s International LGBTQ Film Festival, and in collaboration with 16 Beaver in New York City. She teaches part-time in Geography, Urban Planning and Environment, and is currently completing a PhD in the Interdisciplinary Program in Society and Culture at Concordia University. Nasrin’s research focuses on the militarization of urban space through prison infrastructure and police surveillance. Nasrin is the co-editor of the journal Scapegoat: Architecture/Landscape/Political Economy.

ALESSANDRA RENZI is Social Studies of Information Post-doctoral Fellow at the School of Information Studies of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she examines how participatory social media platforms affect activist practices of collaboration. Her research on media activism and the criminalization of dissent has recently appeared in the book Infrastructure Critical: Sacrifice at Toronto’s G8/G20 Summit (Arbiter Ring).

This presentation draws on Alessandra’s talk entitled: “Infrastructure Must Be Defended: Multi-Issue Extremism and the Criminalization of Dissent after the Financial Crisis”

The Toronto G8/G20 summit of 2010 indicates more than a scalar shift in security; in fact, this case signals significant changes to surveillance practices, control techniques, and funding arrangements within the post-911 security apparatus. To reconsider these changes, the talk offers a detailed analysis of the categories of the protester as “multi-issue extremist” and of “endangered critical infrastructure,” as nomenclatures used by the government and the media to characterize extreme public threats at a time of austerity measures.

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What is the Geogging Collective?

Geogging collective is a loose assortment of geography students who come together to make our geography-inspired ideas a reality. We have held reading groups, proposed new courses to our university programs, organized panel lunch discussion groups.